From left, Veena Merchant, editor-in-chief of News India-Times and Capitol Debates’ host; New Jersey Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, Democrat, who is a rotating panelist; and Mayank Chhaya, journalist and author whose upcoming book on the Dalai Lama has a chapter on the earth’s plate movements because Tibet was created by a continental shift. (Photo: Courtesy, TV Asia)

VEENA MERCHANT: Today we are going to discuss the global tragedy –– the killer tsunamis. This kind of tragedy completely fails words but I think we now have to sit back and analyze and see what can be done. I am going to quote you a clip from The New York Times. Dr. Tad Murthy, who is an expert on the region’s tsunamis and associated with the University of Manitoba, has noted that tsunamis have swept the Indian Ocean and killed several hundred people near Bombay in 1945. Another tsunami had hit what is now Bangladesh in 1700. He says India, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries in the region never saw it as an Indian Ocean problem, they saw it as a Pacific problem. He says there was no reason for anyone to be dead if people were notified. Another clip of The New York Times goes deeper into it. This is from Hawaii’s main tsunami center. It says experts there had useful information about the tsunamis but were stymied by lack of communication with their counterparts in Asia. I don’t want to criticize but want to understand why were we not in touch with the Hawaii center? More than why what can we do as Indian Americans?

MAYANK CHHAYA: I am sure Dr. Tad Murthy is a well-known expert on the subject but we need to see it in a slightly broader perspective. In 1945, India was very much a British colony. Tsunami was not part of any official policy dynamics then. Another instance was over 200 years before that. It is almost like a cultural problem. I was talking to a U.N. expert the other day. He said in the Pacific region tsunamis are part of the people’s everyday life and they react very instinctively.

Now that it has happened in India and elsewhere I am sure it will be built into policy dynamics.

UPENDRA CHIVUKULA: In looking at why we did not have the systems in place, we will have to look at overall emergency management system. Look at the United States –– at every level local, state and federal levels we have emergency management systems in place for all kinds of disasters.

MERCHANT: Mayank you said something about culture earlier. Can you explain?

CHHAYA: My point is about developing a culture where you respect individual life. Unless you begin to respect individual life, the way we see here in the U.S, I think there are a lot of policies that are in place would not change.



MERCHANT: That is something we can’t educate people about. It comes from within. Don’t you think?

CHHAYA: It is a long-term process. The view of life in that region that we seem to have works on many levels but in a disaster like this to take the view that it is part of one’s destiny is cruel. I read a report that some people believe that one of the reasons why tsunamis struck was because the Shankaracharya was arrested.

CHIVUKULA: This goes to show that we are not capable of dealing with a disaster of this magnitude. We talk about following the west –– Florida was hit with five hurricanes in a very short time and only five lives were lost.

MERCHANT: Can we identify the things that we can do from here? One thing is, of course, that we can send funds, many are doing that and that’s very admirable. You, Upendra, are also coordinating efforts, thank you. But don’t you think that some of the effort should go towards helping India’s infrastructure –– I mean putting some systems in place for prevention. Where do we get started? Can there be a relief fund that can offer specifically that –– kind of a brain trust to be put together?

CHIVUKULA: You are right but what is happening is everyone is making an effort –– it needs to be a collective effort.

MERCHANT: I agree with you Upendra. We are a fragmented community and hopefully such disasters bring us together.

(Transcribed by Bhavna Kaul)